The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Part quest,
part rebirth, Heacox’s debut novel spins a story of Alaska’s Tlingit people and
the land, an old man dying, and a young man learning to live.

In the town
of Jinkaat, off Icy Strait near Crystal Bay, Old Keb Wisting, 95, all "big
ears, small bladder, bad teeth" but diamond-clear in soul, wants to bring
meaning to the life of his grandson James, “prisoner of angr” a deeply felt grief.
Basketball wizard James ruined his knee in a logging accident, and Old Keb
decides that the two of them will carve a cedar canoe. Canoe
completed—christened Óoxjaa
Yadéi, or Against the Wind—Keb, with
James and two friends, begins a spirit journey to Crystal Bay, heartland of the
Tlingit people. Heacox’s characters resonate, each immersed in the Pacific
Northwest’s great watery woods. Old Keb, part Norwegian, part Tlingit, is the
last of the Tlingit cedar carvers. There’s also James’ mother, Gracie, who “could
bend [Keb] with a smile.” Keb’s “kittiwake daughter,” Ruby, is a professor, all
pride and passion. Little Mac, James’ Chinese-Tlingit-Scots girlfriend, has a
tiny body, towering intellect, and tremendous empathy. Large Marge, “a wide-hipped
buxomed fisherwoman,” captains the Silverbow with two deaf sons. Keb’s dead uncle
Austin speaks in dreams as Raven, the trickster. Add politicians, bureaucrats,
media types, all circling, making demands, as Keb and the others set out for
Crystal Bay, now a federal reserve and a place mired in conflict with the
development interests of PacAlaska, a Native American corporation. It’s
Heacox’s language, however, and his deep appreciation of the land, the sea, and
the Tlingit, “a liquid people,” that illuminate the story, one with an ending
logical and unsentimental yet emotionally satisfying.

Old Keb
understands it “used to be hard to live and easy to die. Not anymore.”

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